The invention is concerned with apparatus for reproducing instantaneously on command recorded sounds, such as recorded, discrete notes of musical instruments, voice phonemes or the like, without objectionable loss of fidelity and, more particularly, to a record for storing the sounds in such fashion that they may be readily accessed and reproduced.
The artificial reproduction of sound patterns, such as music as played by a musical instrument, human speech and the like, has been achieved in the past through the use of synthesizing or simulation techniques based on tone generators which are inherently deficient in their ability to match the true source. It is primarily because of the lack of time varying complex harmonic and amplitude characteristics, which inhere in the true or actual sound which emanates from original sources, that the synthesized sounds lack realism. An obvious solution to the problem is to utilize recording techniques in which, for example, sets of actual notes from an instrument are pre-recorded for retrieval on command in any desired order. While good results are theoretically achievable, the complexity of the equipment necessary to retrieve a recorded sound from storage instantaneously upon command has been heretofore thought to exceed practical limits. For example, the notes from a piano might last from 1 to 10 seconds, and the problem of locating the precise beginning of each recorded track in a dynamic system so that the note will occur immediately upon command has been all but unachievable as a practical matter.